1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for video processing. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus including a stationary plane image for display on a video display and including a movable plane image for display on said video display.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The word "video" conjures up many images. Although at one time the term was limited to television, particularly broadcast television, the term now applies to anything that can form an image on an electronic display, such as a cathode ray tube or plasma panel. Thus, pinball machines are now video games, slot machines are now video gaming devices, and typewriters are now word processors.
A television image is comprised of strings of pixels (picture elements) arranged in lines. Typical U.S. practice has 520 lines containing over 15,000 pixels. To produce a picture for television, a pickup device--e.g., a television camera--assigns a light value to each pixel during each image scan. This information is processed and then reassembled on a display. In this way sharp, realistic images may be formed.
More modernly, images have been formed from computer generated and computer stored graphic blocks. For example, in video games images are formed from graphic building blocks, each building block having certain color and shape characteristics. By assembling the building blocks in particular patterns different objects are represented. The building blocks are easily standardized and stored in a character memory. Numerous images may be formed by arranging the building blocks in different ways according to an instruction set in a processor.
To move a computer generated video image across a display requires shifting the building blocks left or right and up or down. In the prior art, movement of the building blocks involved shifting the images a block at a time. Since each block is usually a square or rectangle consisting of several pixels arranged on horizontal and vertical display axes, movement of the blocks were rather crude approximations of motion. The size of the blocks themselves also gives computer generated graphic images a characteristic jagged or box edged appearance. The jagged edge, coupled with the coarse image movement, created only a sense of movement--it did not lend realism to the image.
Another drawback of most computer graphic systems and computer video systems is that within a library of standard blocks, only a limited number of colors are available. Shading and subtle color shifts are unavailable. Consequently, most graphic displays take on an animated or cartoon character.
One application where prior art video graphics have been less than satisfactory is that of electronic gaming devices. Such devices may simulate a slot machine or other such gaming device. In the slot machine type device, motion of the slot reels should appear as natural as it is in a mechanical slot machine. Additionally, the graphics (cherry, bells, etc.) should be unmistakable and of a quality that game players have come to expect with mechanical devices. Prior art devices provide very coarse approximations of traditional slot machine and other gaming symbols. The motion of the slot reels in play tends to be exaggerated, blurred, and lacking in realism.
In prior art video displays, the graphic images have been coarse approximations of real objects. Rather than show a particular object, the image formed merely suggests in rough outline a particular object. The coarseness of shape, color, and motion in prior art video graphic systems severly handicaps graphic artists and designers in creating exciting and new graphic images for games or for other display purposes.